Hi there, everyone! It’s almost Thanksgiving—and while I’m sure many of you have altered or canceled plans in order to stay safe this holiday season, I hope you’re still anticipating a nice break from work and some delicious food! I know I am.
The Floyd County Economic Development Authority met last night at 6 p.m. via Zoom. They primarily discussed design plans for the new Floyd Growth Center, and I have details below.
In the next few days, I’ll have two stories for y’all spotlighting local small businesses. I’m really excited about them. On Wednesday, I’ll introduce you to Tom Maxey, who runs Gracious Day Grains from his beautiful property in Check. On Friday, I’ll feature the latest addition to downtown Floyd: Lichen or Knot! I visited with husband & wife team Heather and John Barbieri in their new plant shop on Fox Street yesterday. Stay tuned, and be sure to subscribe before tomorrow if you want full access to these stories.
Thanks as always for the support—for reading, subscribing, liking, commenting and all the emails you send me! I’m grateful for every bit of it. You can always reach me at aspinksdugan@gmail.com.
-Ashley
Plans for Growth Center move forward
Community & Economic Development Director Lydeana Martin walked members of the Economic Development Authority through various plans for the first building in the Floyd Growth Center at its latest meeting. The Growth Center is a new space for industrial companies in the existing Commerce Park. It’s being funded through a $2.3 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
This project is funded by the Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Act of 2019, which provided the Commerce Department with $600 million for disaster relief and recovery in areas affected by Hurricane Florence and other natural disasters. Floyd was one such affected area. The development will also involve more than $575,000 in local investment, and is expected to generate $5 million in private investment.
Building 1 will be a 13,500 square foot building with a mix of office and industrial space. According to Martin, the county is targeting metalwork and fabrication companies for the space. Per guidelines from the US EDA, the building should house at least two tenants, who may be semi-permanent or short-term renters.
Martin kicked off the virtual meeting Monday evening with a discussion about whether to add two additional offices near the entrance of the building. (These offices are highlighted in red in the photo above.)
“We keep hearing about people looking for office space in Floyd,” Martin said. “We kind of had an entryway or reception area,” she explained, which the architect suggested could be turned into two more offices instead. She said when the Floyd Innovation Center first launched, although that space also included “shop space” for industry, the first wave of interest in the building was overwhelming from those needing traditional offices.
Joy Gardner, a member of the EDA, said she’s been in many industrial spaces and they almost always feature a reception window barring you from entry, or someone to check you in. If not a receptionist, Gardner said, at least one of the proposed office spaces should feature a table and a phone, so visitors could phone their party prior to being let inside.
EDA Chairman Jon Beegle agreed and said at least one of the two proposed offices should be reserved as a type of waiting area. “It just doesn’t seem like there’s enough space there,” Beegle said, referring to the front of the building.
The EDA is required to cover at least 15% of the open space on the lot with greenery. Hurt & Proffit, the engineering and surveying firm partnering with the EDA on the project, suggested a mix of trees, including cedar and dogwood, for much of the property. Along one bank, more than 200 plantings of Japanese Garden Juniper will create screening and help prevent erosion.
The property will also feature photovoltaic solar panels, and Martin asked the authority whether it felt those should also be screened from view. The consensus of the board was that there was no need, because solar panels are not unattractive and having them visible made the space seem more modern and impressive. “They would just be a useful tool that we might want to showcase, and not cover it up,” Gardner said. Another authority member said highlighting the solar panels was akin to an organic “marketing opportunity.”
Beegle questioned whether a battery box would accompany the solar panels. Martin wasn’t sure, but authority member Jim Newlin thought it was very unlikely. Because the Floyd Growth Center is being funded by disaster relief money, the EDA had to make the case that the new infrastructure would be “resilient,” Martin said. It’s already equipped to stay operational during disaster, including with backup generators. The solar panels, Newlin said, will mostly be defraying energy costs throughout the day.
Martin also explained that the new building needs to meet several set-back requirements. Of the four she listed, the building design is already in compliance with three. However, the Floyd County Board of Supervisors’ subdivision ordinance requires that structures be 35 feet from the front property line. Right now, the design plans have Building 1 falling fall short of that requirement. The solar panels are within 12 feet of the line.
Martin said the ordinance gives the county government a large degree of leeway with regard to waiving or adjusting the requirements, especially on public property intended for industrial development. The EDA will need to ask for Supervisors’ approval at their next meeting on Dec. 8, which Martin assumed will be granted.
Finally, the authority discussed maintenance of the road that runs alongside two of the four lots planned for the Growth Center, including directly in front of Building 1. Martin asked whether the road should be included within the property lines of the first lot, or considered its own separate lot. Since all potential tenants of the Growth Center would need to use the road, the authority didn’t think it was fair to ask the tenants of Building 1 to shoulder the entire responsibility (financial and otherwise) for maintaining the road.
Beegle suggested in the future, asking tenants on all four plots of land at the Growth Center to chip in 25% of the maintenance fees as a condition of their rental or purchase of the land. For the moment the authority will consider the road an individual lot, not attached to any particular planned lot or building.
The authority also agreed on Growth Center Drive as the official name of the road in front of Building 1, which intersects Commerce Center Drive. It was necessary to settle on a name, Martin said, for the sake of 911 emergency response and for establishing service with APCO, the local electric provider.
Following the debrief on the Floyd Growth Center, Martin and her colleague Tabitha Hodge updated the EDA on the 5 & 10 Loan Program. Hodge said only about half of the program’s 11 participants, who have taken out loans from the EDA to launch or support their small businesses, have been able to make payments throughout the fall. The EDA has given participants the option to defer payments without penalty through Jan. 1, 2021.
At Monday’s meeting, the board decided to extend that deferral period through March 1, 2021, using the logic that the economic situation was unlikely to improve during the winter months, when business is slow in Floyd even under normal circumstances. “What choice do we have? We’ve got to work with them,” said authority member George Nester.
Hodge said all but four of the program’s participants had already applied for grant relief funding through the county’s RISES program. She said she would reach out to those that hadn’t applied, to see if the money could help them stay afloat in the next couple months.
The EDA moved its December meeting, typically the fourth Monday of the month, to Dec. 14.